Although it sold 7 million units to a user base of 10 million, this port's quality was widely criticized. Having manufactured 12 million cartridges with the expectation that the game would increase sales of its console, Atari incurred large financial losses when forced to scrap over five million copies. This was one of the catalysts that led to the North American video game crash of 1983, second only to the home video game version of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial.

Both Atari and Coleco fought to get publishing rights for the game from Nintendo, but Coleco won. For first six months, it was only available bundled with ColecoVision consoles, but by the end of 1982, a stand-alone Atari 2600 version was available.

One of the original nine launch titles for the Atari 2600 VCS, Combat came bundled with the systems until 1982. The game was partly based on Atari's 1974 arcade game 'Tank' and 1975's 'Anti-Aircraft II'

Being only given six weeks to develop it in order to get onto holiday store shelves, Howard Scott Warshaw went on to create what many consider The Worst Video Game of All Time, and which was the catalyst behind the 'video game crash of 1983'. As a result of overproduction, millions of unsold cartrdiges ended up being buried in a New Mexico landfill.

This title was Atari 2600's best selling original title (it wasn't an arcade port), and was highly praised, which is odd as the same programmer went on to make E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial, which brought on the downfall of Atari.

General Computer Corp created a Pac-Man clone prototype called 'Crazy Otto' and showed it to Midway, Namco's US distributor. Midway was very impressed with it, and after getting tired of waiting on Namco to deliver a sequel to Pac-Man, decided to re-brand Crazy Otto as 'Ms. Pac-Man' and released it without Namco's approval. After it became a huge hit, Midway and GCC handed over all rights to the game to Namco, to avoid any legal fights.

Originally meant to be a port of the 1978 Arcade game 'Avalanche', the gameplay concept had to be dramatically altered due to limitations of the 2600. However, Avalanche arcade title never took off in popularity, while Kaboom! became one of Activision's greatest hits, selling over one million copies. It is often regarded as the greatest 2600 game ever made.

Considered to be the first action-adventure game ever created, as well as inclusion of the first popular 'Easter Egg' included within a game. At the time, Atari never gave designers credit for their games (which eventually led four top programmers to leave and form Activision) but Warren Robinett included a hidden Easter Egg which revealed himself as the designer.

Often cited by 2600 fans as one of their favorite titles, and easily the best multi-player game for the console, Warlords was a huge hit throughout the life of the 2600. The original 1980 version used joysticks, but the 1981 re-release made use of the much-better suited paddle controllers.

Loosely based on 1979's arcade hit 'Galaxian', Imagic's Demon Attack had very similar gameplay to Atari's 'Phoenix' title, prompting a lawsuit by the gaming giant. Imagic settled out of court, and Demon Attack went on to become Imagic's only big sales hit.

Although a very mediocre, if not bad game, it was the work on this title which led director Steven Spielberg to insist that Howard Scott Warshaw be the programmer on the ill-fated 'E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial' game.

The grandfather of vertical shooter games, River Raid was impressive in the huge variety of non-random terrain included within. Also, it was first video game ever to be put on the German index of 'media items harmful to young persons'. It remained a banned game in Germany until 2002, when Activision successfully had the title removed off the index so they could release their PS2 Activision Anthology.

Having secured publishing rights to all Star Wars games for the Atari 2600, Parker Brothers released Star Wars: The Arcade Game, Jedi Arena, and Return of the Jedi, but 'The Empire Strikes Back' was by far the most successful.

Partly based on Atari's 'Outlaw' arcade game, released in 1976, the Atari 2600 port added many more gameplay modes as well as player vs player shootouts that wasn't possible on the arcade version. It was published by Sears Tele-Games as 'Gunslinger'.

Wow. Great list, despite its immensity. I of course had to look for the small handful I had to make sure I had them rated. We inherited our Atari from my uncle when he went into the Marines, and I remember playing some of those games for hours, despite how very bad they were...

I do remember that Raiders of the Lost Ark was clunky as heck, because you had to use both controllers for the game.